Traditionally cooking ranges consisted of a number of surface burners for cooking, boiling, steaming, flying, etc. food and an oven for baking or broiling food. The burners, although had settings ranging from low to hi, were either on or off. Even if the burners were set to low, the constant low heat being transferred to the food would continue to cook the food. A need therefore existed for a food warming zone located on the surface. Although this need has been addressed as there are ranges that presently have a warmer zone these ranges require separate processors to perform the functions of the surface burners, oven and warmer zone.
Typical ranges further consisted of a storage drawer located beneath the oven. The storage drawer was utilized to store various cooking utensils such as a broiling pan, cookie sheets, etc. In addition, the storage drawer has also been utilized as a broiling chamber that received a broiling tray. The broiling element was located above the broiling tray and was operated at high temperatures to perform the broiling function. Because the broiling element operated at only high temperatures any attempt to maintain the temperature of the food without further cooking it was not possible.
Therefore, a need existed for a warming function to maintain food at a warm temperature without further cooking the food. U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,391 to Deo et al. discloses a warming drawer for a domestic range located beneath the oven. The temperature of warmer drawer heating element is maintained between a predetermined maximum and minimum temperature so as to provide warmth to the warmer drawer thereby keeping the food warm without further cooking it. However, the disadvantage of Deo et al. is that the warmer drawer, like the warmer zone, required a separate processor to process the functions input by the operator.
Therefore, a need exists for a cooking range that has surface burners, a warmer zone, an oven, and a warmer drawer that perform distinct cooking functions and are all controlled by a centralized processing control system having a single processor.